How do you view the world?

We live in world which is full of views. Don't do this, don't do that. You must do this, you must do that. You shouldn't do this, you shouldn't do that. We also live as if our views are us. In reality, your view is your view, and you are you. They are two different things. Your view that you hold about a particular topic is just your view, it is not who you really are. You really are just you. Nothing more, nothing less. Nothing added, nothing taken away.

Therefore, a view is just like a filter or a pattern which consolidates reality in such a way so it may be understood and grounds the mind into a particular way of thinking. For example, if I say that "apples are disgusting" then every time I see an apple, the view I hold about the apple filters the information from my senses so that the apple seems disgusting to me. Actually what my senses are picking up is just an apple - the apple is neither disgusting nor tasty - it's just an apple! But my view of what an apple is misconstrues this input coming in from my senses and gives me the result "apples are disgusting". To another person who holds the view "apples are delicious", the result will be different.

However, our views of the world which were formed when we were children, are a little more complex than this basic apple analogy. They affect each of our actions, each of our interactions and each of our relationships with everything. Every-thing! Every time we do anything, we are acting under the filter of our views which we ourselves created but forgot we created! This basically means everything we do is inauthentic. It's not pure, it's not truthful, it's not anything but a 4-year-old running our lives! And that 4-year-old is us when we were 4 years old and formed our view about reality. An example of a view created by a 4-year-old might include "Don't express", or "No one loves me", or "Life is boring". This view then goes onto affect every action, interaction and relationship we have - it becomes the foundation from which we build our lives upon.

Unfortunately however, views can also cause great divisions to our world and to our society when we lead ourselves to believe that our particular set of views are the only truth, and therefore all other views are false. This is only true in the animal kingdom, where one beast reigns supreme and everyone else is second-class. But in the human kingdom every human being on Earth has a different view to everyone else, and every view is valid. You see, the difference between me and other people is that I am aware that even my view that all views are valid, is just a view, it is also not the truth, it is merely my truth. However, my view is a Universal one and allows us to create a world of peace in which everyone respects each others' points of view, whereas if a person thinks there is only one truth and it's exclusively for them then this will create a divided society. The choice is up to us, either to create a world of unity or create a world of division.

Also, sometimes views can become very destructive when, a person who thinks their view is the only truth, tries to force another person to accept their view. At a macro level this happened with the Mughal Empire in the 16th century which began to forcibly convert people to Islam, and with Adolf Hitler in the 19th Century who began ethnic cleansing of the Jews. At a micro level this happens everyday at home, in the workplace and at places of 'worship', and most people do this unconsciously. We all try and force our views about particular subjects on other people thinking that they are the absolute and only truth. Examples of this include: homosexuality is wrong, women are weaker than men, all men are cheaters, all Americans are greedy, having too much money is bad, governments are to blame for everything, there will always be violence in the world. We have to understand that these are just views, they are not the truth and they do not correspond to the reality - they only correspond to our individual truth and our individual reality.

Therefore, there is nothing right or wrong in having views, whatever the views may be, in fact we need them as human beings to function on a day-to-day basis. But if our particular set of views do not allow us to understand who we really are, or our purpose in this life, then this view is keeping us limited. Some of these views which we created as children or as adults don't serve us anymore, so we should become aware of these views and then choose to let go of them. Other views may still serve our purpose in life very well, but by becoming aware that these still are just views we created, means we are aware that they may not serve us one day and we can just choose to let go and move on.

The reason why the world is divided at a macro level is because we have created small divisions at a micro level. These divisions exist because we hold steadfast to our views as the only reality and only truth. If we are to create a peaceful society we will have to transform our limited views into a Universal view, and to let go of our views that do not serve our purpose in this life, and to become aware that: your view that you hold about a particular topic is just your view, it is not who you really are. You really are just you. Nothing more, nothing less. Nothing added, nothing taken away!

Sat Naam.

Article inspired by Landmark Education and Yogi Bhajan's book on The Mind and It's Multiple Facets and Projections